As my newfound retirement continues to unfold, my wife and I have busied ourselves with the process of moving from our old residence to our new one. Most of you are familiar with the routine of moving. Each and every night has been spent packing boxes; and each and every day has then been spent moving and then unpacking those boxes.
One eats the proverbial elephant one bite at a time; and eventually, when enough bites have been taken, the beast is finally consumed.
As I headed back for one more trip late this afternoon, the news on the radio caught my attention. The Governor of our fair state has now announced that, due to the coronavirus, residents are being bidden to shelter in place at their homes.
I had known that this time might come; but I had just not expected it to come quite so quickly. Nonetheless, as of tomorrow morning at 8am, every single Tennessean’s agenda will now change.
Of course, my own agenda changed right then and there. Rather than continuing on home, my wife and I headed straight to the gas station; thence to the bank; and from there, we made one last run to the grocery store in order to ensure that we had what we considered enough to survive this ordeal.
But these furious few moments are not what I will remember about this eventful day. Instead, I will forever remember the one when the Lord allowed me to witness what I did as I crossed the Tennessee River Bridge on my way back to our current home.
It had not been ten minutes since I learned of the Governor’s official “Stay at Home Order” when, as I was crossing the bridge and happened to glance upward, I saw a beautiful osprey flapping its wings as it climbed skyward, hauling with it as it did a huge fish of some sort clasped in its talons.
I immediately thought of the large osprey nest I had earlier noticed high atop a Tennessee Valley Authority Power Pole immediately adjacent to the bridge. Just a day or two earlier I had glanced up at just the right moment to see an osprey chick wigwagging its head back and forth. Obviously, what I was now witnessing was one of the two parents of this chick now headed home with a scrumptious meal firmly in its grasp!
Of course, neither the osprey nor its chick was aware of some virus known as Covid-19. They were both gloriously ignorant of the entire concern. No sooner had I had this thought than I had another. The words of Jesus in His famed “Sermon on the Mount” (as recorded in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25-27) came to mind:
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
In the midst of the worst pandemic of the modern era, I was a little distraught and somewhat intent on preparing for what tomorrow might hold. For His part, my Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, was more intent on reminding me that He was still in control!
Obviously, I myself do not know what tomorrow holds. But my Heavenly Father certainly does! And for this very reason, I can and will trust Him! Just as He provided for a blissfully ignorant bird of prey and its family in its hour of need, even so will I trust Him to provide for me and my family in our hour of need!
In short, our future is clearly in His grasp; and in His grasp alone! That is enough for me. Is it enough for you?
SOURCE: https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/6.htm.
One eats the proverbial elephant one bite at a time; and eventually, when enough bites have been taken, the beast is finally consumed.
As I headed back for one more trip late this afternoon, the news on the radio caught my attention. The Governor of our fair state has now announced that, due to the coronavirus, residents are being bidden to shelter in place at their homes.
I had known that this time might come; but I had just not expected it to come quite so quickly. Nonetheless, as of tomorrow morning at 8am, every single Tennessean’s agenda will now change.
Of course, my own agenda changed right then and there. Rather than continuing on home, my wife and I headed straight to the gas station; thence to the bank; and from there, we made one last run to the grocery store in order to ensure that we had what we considered enough to survive this ordeal.
But these furious few moments are not what I will remember about this eventful day. Instead, I will forever remember the one when the Lord allowed me to witness what I did as I crossed the Tennessee River Bridge on my way back to our current home.
It had not been ten minutes since I learned of the Governor’s official “Stay at Home Order” when, as I was crossing the bridge and happened to glance upward, I saw a beautiful osprey flapping its wings as it climbed skyward, hauling with it as it did a huge fish of some sort clasped in its talons.
I immediately thought of the large osprey nest I had earlier noticed high atop a Tennessee Valley Authority Power Pole immediately adjacent to the bridge. Just a day or two earlier I had glanced up at just the right moment to see an osprey chick wigwagging its head back and forth. Obviously, what I was now witnessing was one of the two parents of this chick now headed home with a scrumptious meal firmly in its grasp!
Of course, neither the osprey nor its chick was aware of some virus known as Covid-19. They were both gloriously ignorant of the entire concern. No sooner had I had this thought than I had another. The words of Jesus in His famed “Sermon on the Mount” (as recorded in the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, verses 25-27) came to mind:
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
In the midst of the worst pandemic of the modern era, I was a little distraught and somewhat intent on preparing for what tomorrow might hold. For His part, my Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, was more intent on reminding me that He was still in control!
Obviously, I myself do not know what tomorrow holds. But my Heavenly Father certainly does! And for this very reason, I can and will trust Him! Just as He provided for a blissfully ignorant bird of prey and its family in its hour of need, even so will I trust Him to provide for me and my family in our hour of need!
In short, our future is clearly in His grasp; and in His grasp alone! That is enough for me. Is it enough for you?
SOURCE: https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/6.htm.